Wellsburg, Follansbee split a twinbill
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WELLSBURG -- Follansbee Post 45 has shown a knack of late for bouncing back in the second game of a doubleheader.
After bouncing back to earn a split with Jefferson County in a twinbill last week, it did the same on Monday night, overcoming a close 6-5 loss in the opener against Brooke County rival Wellsburg Post 34 for a 16-1, five-inning win in the nightcap.
"Maybe we need to start playing the second game first," Follansbee coach Joe Campinelli joked. "The first game, there were so many balls that they couldn't have walked out and placed better … sometimes we just don't have luck.
"We would tattoo the ball and it went right at someone. It's not a lack of focus, we're not out of position, sometimes we just don't get the breaks.
"But, our kids bounce back. They don't get discouraged they come back out and play hard in the second game. The kids stay on an even keel no matter what. They're just resiliant and they battle."
Wellsburg (4-9) scored a run in each of the first four innings of Game 1 then rallied back to win on a Ray DeFranco walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh.
Game 2, though, slowly started to get away before a 10-run fourth by Follansbee, three coming on a double by Hunter Rhoades, blew things open for good.
"It always seems when we play we have a good, close game and a blowout," Wellsburg coach Micah Knisely said. "The same thing happened last year. We're a better team than that second game showed. It just got away from us.
"These kids play together all year. No one gets the bragging rights with a splt.
"We're the younger team, we have seven freshmen, so overall I'm happy with a split just not the way we played in the second game."
After dropping the opener, coming back to earn a split was big for the Brooke High School products playing for Follansbee (5-7) against their springtime teammates on the Wellsburg side.
"It was big for us to get the second one," Campinelli said. "We don't want to lose one to Wellsburg, let alone two. The Brooke kids let the Oak Glen and Park kids know how important it was to them to win the second game."
In the opener, Blain Beatty and Zac O.Mery each drove in a pair of runs for Wellsburg, DeFranco and Hunter Mozingo also plating a run. O'Mery, also the winning pitcher, and Anthony Maple knocking doubles.
For Follansbee, Owen Petrella had a double, single and an RBI and Charlie Fuscardo cranked a solo homer.
Follansbee scored first, after having a run disallowed on a disputed call, in the first inning of Game 2 and seemed to have a fire lit from there, plating four runs in the second aided by some Wellsburg miscues.
"It fired us up a little bit," Campinelli said. "That was a turning point for us, but I think we would have been OK regardless."
Rhoades, an Oak Glen product, finished with a double and triple and four RBIs, while Owen Petrella and Garrett Hornick each drove in a pair of runs.
"The Oak Glen kids have been tremendous for us," Campinelli said. "Hunter is hitting .571, he's destroying the baseball right now."
Wellsburg was plagued by eight errors in the nightcap, leading to 11 unearned runs.
"Errors killed is in the second game," Kinsely said. "You can't have that many errors and win a baseball game."
Zach Davis fanned three in four innings on the mound for Follansbee to earn the win on the hill.
UP NEXT
Wellsburg: Hosts Wheeling Post 1 on Wednesday.
Follansbee: Hosts the Wheeling Wildthings tonight.